


Yours to fight

by Plume_Sombre



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Final Haikyuu Quest, Angst, KinKuniKage Week, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 10:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11872872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plume_Sombre/pseuds/Plume_Sombre
Summary: KinKuniKage week days 4 & 5: strength and creatureThey chose their paths, but in the end, it's together they are the strongest.





	Yours to fight

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct 'sequel' to my first entry, _Yours to take_. This is set a few months after Tobio left; the three of them met a handful of times, and even though they kind of made up, they are still a bit uneasy around each other (Tobio on one side and Yuutarou  & Akira on the other).
> 
> Not very shippy this time.
> 
> Enjoy!

Yuutarou is stumbling through the woods, hardly aware of his surroundings and of who is following him. He just needs to get away, far from here, far from the voices telling him to break, destroy, exterminate everything. There is just so much filling his head, a jumble of thoughts and of images too blurred to make sense of, blinding him with white light and black dots. He didn't even tell Akira where he was going, he just needed to _go_.

“ _And here I thought it would work. What a shame, Yuutarou.”_

This wasn't their King's voice, this wasn't their King's appearance either. Tobio has always been the closest to King Tooru, but even without directly looking in his eyes, Yuutarou knew that King Tooru doesn't have red eyes thirsty for blood. Everything was wrong—the tone, the face, the color of the words and of the atmosphere, and most of all, Yuutarou himself. He can't remember when was the last time he spent a day feeling refreshed and at his best.

For the past months, headaches came and went, draining his energy and confusing him, but then the voices started to drag him into an unknown abyss he's not sure how to get out of.

Tobio was right all along, and that's why he left.

“Shit...”

Yuutarou stops, leans against a tree and lets out a shuddering breath. He grips his hair in a fruitless attempt to block out the noise manipulating his mind, heart pounding and ready to burst at any moment.

“ _Yuutarou, you know perfectly well that you can't say either! You and Akira have to come with me!”_

“ _How can I turn my back on everything I believed in?”_

It had looked so easy for Tobio to run away (but Yuutarou knows that Tobio suffered a lot because of the distrust they showed). This agony started when he met Tobio again, a few weeks after he was declared a traitor to kill on sight, and Yuutarou has been too stubborn, too hurt, to admit that the events were linked and that he should have listened to one of the two people who was once part of his world. Tobio seemed physically fine, standing on his two feet and firmly gripping his bow, but his face and his eyes told a complete another story—haunted, resigned, sad, Yuutarou doesn't want to remember. Twice he disappointed him.

He's tired of fighting.

* * *

“That fucking idiot.”

Akira saw some of the guards setting off to look for Yuutarou. He would have followed too, if King Tooru hasn't kept him in the castle, pinning him with a cold smile and eyes promising pain if he disobeyed. Akira truly doesn't understand why the three of them (yes, because Tobio has been the first on the list) are the target of this... demon. He senses a sinister aura surrounding the King whenever he's close enough, something choking and unsettling, even to him; there is no doubt that this demon has taken possession of the King's body and is now controlling or influencing him. The most disturbing is General Hajime's passive behavior towards what is happening, but Akira doesn't have the time to question Hajime when he has two people to find.

For the few seconds he's able to, he conceals his presence and slips past the King's watch, and he runs in the woods. If he's lucky he will come across Tobio before Yuutarou; he needs all the help available to bring him back.

(He swallows the guilt of not believing Tobio when he should have.)

Tobio left but he has never been far. He crossed the woods and settled in the village, with some other guy Akira didn't bother remembering the name, and if they wished they could meet every day. From what he gathered, Tobio hunts in the woods and sometimes gets close to the castle—he never told him why, and that's understandable after what happened, but still it stings. Honestly, Akira is relieved because Tobio doesn't treat them like enemies; he might be a bit cold or harsh sometimes, but he's still Tobio in the end—caring, soft and wearing his heart on his sleeve.

Akira is running, following the faint footprints in the mud, though by now they could be anywhere. He suddenly stops, feeling his skin prickle, a familiar aura reaching him, and he changes directions. He made a task of remembering how Yuutarou's aura feels to find him if they get separated—no easy feat, and right now he's glad he managed to master this skill.

And there, hiding behind thick bushes, Yuutarou is sitting, head between his knees and panting, like he's been fighting an enemy for hours. Akira is surprised the guards didn't find him. Slowly, he approaches him, uneasy despite the absence of direct threat near them.

“Yuutarou.”

Yuutarou doesn't answer; he keeps his head lowered and doesn't even show any signs of having heard Akira.

“Can you hear me? Answer me.”

Silence. Akira extends a hand and touches his shoulder.

The effect is immediate. Yuutarou slaps Akira's hand away and lifts his head, his eyes filled with fire yet glazed over. Akira recoils, but the sight of these usually gentle eyes glaring at him keeps him focused on the task at hand, and he squares his shoulders.

“Fight whatever is in your body, Yuutarou. Fight it from the inside; I'll fight it from the outside.”

“Been... doing that...” Yuutarou's voice sounds scratched and the words tumble out of his mouth, but at least he's conscious and understands Akira. “It's just... it keeps telling me to destroy...”

“Then don't listen. You know you're stronger than it. You won't do stuff you don't want to.”

They're treading on thin ice; Akira knows what Yuutarou is going through, because he has experienced the same thing in the course of the past months. He's gifted with magic, though, so he managed to quickly expel the spell from his body, but Yuutarou doesn't have this ability, and Akira is cursing himself for not noticing sooner what was right before his eyes.

“It's alright, you can do it. Just trust me.”

Yuutarou's gaze is wavering—the spell is dissipating.

“Akira! Yuutarou!”

Stunned, Akira whips his head to his right, and rushing towards them is Tobio, looking frantic. He rarely shows that much distress, which is proof of how worried he is right now. There is none of the wariness he displayed the last few times they met, only the familiar look of concern he'd get after a tough mission. This is the Tobio Akira has missed.

“There are guards who came looking for me,” he goes on, not stopping to clearly look at Yuutarou's state. “I escaped, and I heard them say something about King Tooru needing the both of you. Are you all right?”

“They came looking for you—?”

But Tobio isn't listening, eyes darting on Yuutarou. He doesn't explode or yell, as Akira would have expected, and instead crouches down to look Yuutarou directly in the eye. He seems completely calm, the initial worry absent from his stance and his words.

“Hey, Yuutarou,” he whispers. “I'm sorry I didn't warn you about this.”

“You did warn us about something bad,” Yuutarou replies, letting out a heavy sigh.

Akira can almost believe the spell is gone, but the one who cast it must be powerful enough to leave such a permanent mark on their minds, meaning that it is only the beginning of the fight to repel it. Yuutarou still looks in pain, but at least the glimmer in his eyes is alive.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Tobio says. “But even if I warned you, you wouldn't have been able to know when it would happen. I was hit by one of these spells and didn't notice until weeks later.”

“How did you...?”

Tobio shrugs. “Shouyou helped me to stay sane, and he has a friend with good knowledge about magic.”

Should have been us, Akira thinks bitterly, almost afraid to imagine how bad it was if Tobio wasn't outright denying being affected by the spell. But his theory about people gifted with magic being less prone to undergo the effects of spells is valid—out of the three of them, he's the only one without major sequels. He will have to keep an eye on Yuutarou.

Maybe needing to have proof they were all alive, Akira crouches down in turn and grabs both their arms, earning identical quizzical looks.

“You both are too reckless,” he scolds, but his words lack the usual bite. “If you die, I'll go looking for you in Hell to personally kill you.”

“Why are you assuming we'll go to Hell?” Tobio asks, sounding mildly offended.

“Because you are idiots.”

Tobio's aura is steady, not colored by any evil or demon, though he can still sense the lingering effects of the spell; if the mage tries something again, there is no doubt they will succeed in possessing Tobio's soul or body. The same goes for Yuutarou; its presence is heavier and much more fickle, and Akira can't pinpoint where it starts and where it ends.

But for now, they're both alright, and he's so relieved that he pulls the two of them in a loose embrace. The confusion grows on their faces, but they end up returning the hug with a chuckle.

“That's unexpected coming from you, Akira,” Tobio points out.

“Shut up.”

“We're fine, don't worry,” Yuutarou says.

It has been months since Tobio left the castle; it has been weeks since this ordeal began; and it has been days since they are all aware of what is transpiring in the kingdom. Something wrong and dark is hovering over their heads, and while they don't know why they're caught in the middle of it, they know they have to stop it.

Once again, working together, handling each other's life in the heart of their palms.

 


End file.
